• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.65 no.4
• /
• pp.165-193
• /
• 2013

This study purposes to explore the growing process through spousal bereavement in later life, and to develop the theory. A qualitative research was conducted, and the participants were 17 seniors. The analysis according to Strauss and Corbin's grounded theory(1998), resulted in 143 concepts, 43 subcategories, and 19 categories. Range analysis according to paradigm showed that the causal conditions were 'marital relationships', 'independent/dependent tendencies', and 'emotional readiness for the death of a spouse', and the phenomena were 'depression', 'hopelessness', 'daily stress', 'psychological intimidation', 'regret', and 'sense of being freed'. The contextual conditions that affect these phenomena were 'desire for intimate personal relationships' and 'desire to maintain independence'; the action/interaction strategies to manage the phenomena were 'facing reality' and 'efforts for construction of the new life'; and the mediating conditions that promote or suppress these action/interaction strategies were 'social support' and 'spirituality'. The results were 'reconstruction of the meaning in life', 'increase in self-esteem', 'reinforcement of social network' and 'embrace and acceptance'. Furthermore, when personal growth after bereavement of a spouse was analyzed focusing on changes over time, the growth process consisted of three steps: 'sadness and despair', 'embracing and moving forward', and 'personal growth'. The pattern analyses were performed to typify recurring relations by category, and 5 types were derived. The results of our study show that personal growth after spousal loss is an integrative process in life after crisis, and can be conceptualized as the process of overcoming the despair that immediately follows the death of a spouse, seeking a new life by actively taking control, and discovering a strengthened self.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.231-244
• /
• 2020

Background: As the population is aging, chronic diseases and depression are becoming the main problems in a country's healthcare system. In this study, we aimed to explore the associations between chronic diseases and depression among the elderly in South Korea. Methods: We analyzed 9,975 (men, 4,147; women, 5,828) respondents obtained from the 2014 National Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Korean Older Persons. Our dependent variable was either 1 or 0 according to whether a respondent had depression or not, where depression was defined when the Short Form of Geriatric Depression Scale score was 8 or more points. Variables of interest were 24 types of chronic diseases and covariates included various socio-demographic and health behavior characteristics. We performed Rao-Scott chi-square tests and hierarchal logistic regression analyses by gender, reflecting the characteristics of the survey. Results: A significant difference was found in the proportion of having depression between genders (men 18.9% vs. women 23.4%). According to fully adjusted, multivariable analyses, for elderly men, relative to those without any chronic disease, the odds ratio of depression was 1.56 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10-2.22) in the stroke patients group and 1.82 (95% CI, 1.01-3.25) in the osteoporosis patients group. For elderly women, the odds ratio was 1.96 (95% CI, 1.28-3.00) in the fracture/dislocation and aftereffects patients group and 1.30 (95% CI, 1.03-1.64) in the group of patients with other diseases. Conclusion: Even after being adjusted for diverse characteristics, some chronic diseases were significantly associated with depression in the elderly and the association differed between genders. Therefore, public health and medical interventions are needed to manage such chronic diseases together with curing depression symptoms.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.776-790
• /
• 2000

Every year the number of the elderly increases in Korea thanks to the improvemen of social and economical levels and the development of medicine. However, many problems such as insufficent care and the isolation of the elderly have been commonplace. This trend exists not only because of increased lifespan but also the changing social structure of the nuclear family. Accordingly, inspite of the development of medicine, geriatric diseases including circulatory diseases are increasing in proportion of elderly population, as well as the severity. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that health care programs provide the best possible health care and functional capacities in terms of healthy elderly lifestyles. Especially, the phenomena of aging and geriatric diseases taking place with the elderly naturally are affected by lifestyle and the drastic changes in exercise patterns. This study aims to improve geriatric health by introducing a rhythmic movement program for the elderly to estabilish a health-promoting self-care system and by developing quality of life, perceived health status, their physical and physiological functions and emotional state. The theoretical framework used in this dissertation is derived from the Health-Promoting Self-Care System Model (Simmons, 1990), which integrates the Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory (Orem, 1985), the interaction model of Client Health Behavior (Cox, 1982) and the Health Promotion Model (Pender, 1987). As a quasi-experimental design, the nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design is utilized for this study. The subjects of this study consist of 64 people, over 65 years old who live in 2 nursing homes for the aged located in S city , Kyong-gi province and volunteered for this study from July, 12, 1999 to September, 17, 1999. They are divided into two groups：33 in the experimental group and 31 in the control group. The experimental group particpated in the Rhythmic Movement Program at the nursing home, which was comprised of 45 minutes a session, 5 sessions a week during 9 weeks. In order to measure the results of the Rhythmic Movement Program, aspects of perceived health status, balance, flexibility, grip strength, leg strength, heart rate, blood pressure, depression, anxiety and the quality of life were measured before and after participating in the Rhythimic Movement Program for the experimental group after 9 weeks, as well as the control group. The collected data were processed by SPSS PC+ and analyzed by the X2 test, t-test, ANCOVA and the Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The results of this study are as follows: 1. The perceived health status conditions in the experimental group show statistically significant improvement when compared to the control group (F=17.51, p=.000). 2. The physical and physiological functions, that is, balance (F=17.51, p=.000), flexibility (F=8.01, p=.006), grip strength (F=3.21, p=.018) and leg strength (F=25.78, p=.000) in the experimental group are higher than the control group. The vital signs, that is, the number of heart rate (F=.022, p=.884), systolic pressure (F=1.73 p=.193), and diastolic pressure (F=2.74, p=.103) in the experimental group compared to the control group decreased, but doesn't show statistically significant differences. Immune responses (F=5.13, p=.003) showed statistically significant increases in the experimental group when compared to the control group. 3. The emotional state are improved, that is, degree of depression (F=11.56, p=.001) and degree of anxiety (F=9.14, p=.004) in the experimental group showed statistically significant decreases. 4. The quality of life in the experimental group (F=3.03, p=.037) showed statistically significant differences compared to the control group. 5. The observations of the relationships among the perceived health status, emotional state , the quality of life, the relationships between the perceived health status, the degree of depression (r=-.653, p=.000) and the degree of anxiety (r=-.786, p=.000) were in contrary propotions, while the relationships between the perceived health status and the quality of life (r=.234, p=.008) were in direct propotion. In conclusion, the Rhythmic Movement Program used in this study for geriatric nursing care is simple and safe for application to the elderly and shows significant effects by implementing 5 sessions a week for 9 weeks. The Rhythmic Movement Program improves the quality of life, maintains as well as improves the physical and physiological fuctions and emotional state, therefore this program is strongly recommended for positive applications for independant geriatric nursing health care.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.56-64
• /
• 1995

Family is a primary unit of the major socialization processing for children. Parents among the family members are one of the most important figures from whom the child and adolescent acquire a wide variety of behavior patterns, attitudes, values and norms. An organization of family members product family structural functioning. Abnormal family structure is one of the most important reference models in the learning of antisocial patterns of behavior. Therefore incest and child sexual abuse including spouse abuse, elderly abuse, and neglect occurs in the abnormal family structural setting. In particular, incest, a specific form of sexual abuse, was once thought to be a phenomenon of great rarity, but our clinical experiences, especially over the past decade, have made us aware that incest and child sexual abuse is not rare case and on the increasing trend. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the family problem and dynamics of incest family, and character pattern of post-incest adolescent victim in Korea. A total of 1,838 adolescents from middle and high school(1,237) and juvenile correctional institute(601) were studied, sampled from Korean student population and adolescent delinquent population confined in juvenile correctional institutes, using proportional stratified random sampling method. The subjects' ages ranged from 12 to 21 years. Data were collected through questionnaire survey. Data analysis was done by IBM PC of Behavior Science Center at the Korea university, using SAS program. Statistical methods employed were Chi-square, principal component analysis and t-test etc. The results of this study were as follows ; 1) Of 1,071 subjects, 40(3.7%) reported incest experiences(sibling incest : 1.6% ; another type of incest : 2.1%) in their family setting. 2) The character pattern of post-incest adolescent victim was more socially maladjusted, immature, impulsive, rigid, anxious and dependent than non-incest adolescent. Also they showed some problem in academic performance and their assertiveness. 3) The other family members of incest family revealed more psychological and behavioral problem such as depression, alcoholism, psychotic disorder and criminal act than the non-incest family, even though there is no evidence of the context between them. 4) The family dynamics of incest family tended to be dysfunctional trend, as compared with non-incest family. It showed that the psychological instability of family member, parental rejection toward their children, coldness and indifference among family member and marital discordance between the parents had significant correlation with incest.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.60-68
• /
• 2019

Objectives : The association between thyroid-related hormones and cognitive function has been controversial. The purpose of this study is to compare the levels of thyroid-related hormones in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between thyroid-related hormones and cognitive function. Methods : From January 2011 to December 2018, we retrospectively reviewed 105 patients who were diagnosed with AD and MCI by visiting a dementia clinic at Ilsan Paik Hospital. Thyroid-related hormones [triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)] was measured using chemiluminescent immunoassay. An independent sample t-test was performed to analyze the mean value of thyroid-related hormones in patients of AD and MCI. To investigate whether thyroid-related hormones correlate significantly with Global deterioration scale (GDS), Clinical dementia rating (CDR) and scores of each The Korean version of the consortium to establish a registry for Alzheimer's disease items, we conducted a partial correlation analysis with geriatric depression scale-Korean version (GDS-K) scores as covariates. Results : There was no significant difference in the mean serum T3, T4 and TSH levels between patients of the AD and the MCI, but the Construction Praxis Test (CPT) showed a significant positive correlation with the serum TSH concentration (p-value=0.004). Conclusions : In our study, the positive correlation between serum TSH level and the CPT associated with executive function was found to be helpful in understanding the association between thyroid-related hormones and the pathophysiology of dementia. Prospective studies in regard of the pathophysiology of thyroid-related hormones on cognitive function will be necessary in the future.